Sen. Grassley’s comment on the House vote on a second SCHIP compromise bill

Sens. Chuck Grassley and Orrin Hatch issued the comments below about the outcome ofthe vote this afternoon in the House of Representatives on children’s health insurance legislation.

As Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Finance and Ranking Member of theFinance Subcommittee on Health Care, Sens. Grassley and Hatch have co-authored bipartisanproposals this year, including this one, to reauthorize for five years the State Children’s HealthInsurance Program, which expired on September 30. Congress created the SCHIP program in1997 to provide health insurance coverage to children in low-income families who are noteligible for Medicaid. Sen. Hatch was the lead Senate sponsor of the original legislation.

In subsequent years, due to waivers granted by both the Clinton and Bushadministrations, the program has grown to include adults and high-income families. Sens.Grassley and Hatch have criticized the current administration’s encouragement of states to addchildless adults to the SCHIP program and approval of state requests to expand their programs inthis way. Sens. Grassley and Hatch have fought throughout this year to refocus the program onits core mission of reaching low-income children.

The bill considered today by the House of Representatives made improvements to theprevious compromise legislation by providing health coverage for an additional 4 millionlow-income uninsured children, accelerating the phase-out period for childless adults who wereadded to the program through administration-approved waivers, placing a hard cap of 300percent of the federal poverty level for program eligibility, and providing states with bonuspayments only for covering the poorest of the poor children who are eligible for Medicaid.

Sen. Grassley’s comment:

“It’s a shame that this legislation, which is even stronger than the compromise legislationpassed earlier this month, did not secure a veto-proof majority of support from members of theHouse of Representatives. The bill gets rid of the bad policies in the current law, which willcontinue by way of the program extensions that are inevitable without new legislation. This billoffered a responsible way for Congress to do its job of renewing a program that states have madea success for lower-income working families. It was such a good opportunity to get reforms inplace and a new law on the books.”

Sen. Hatch’s comment:

“I am very disappointed about the outcome of today’s vote. I believe it is a lostopportunity for America’s low-income, uninsured children. As one of the authors of the originalprogram, I believe that reauthorizing CHIP is the right thing to do but unfortunately, CHIP hasnow become the center of a political battle. As a result, low-income children will continue to beuninsured. That is a shame.”